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Dark Ones
Dark Ones are magical creatures featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It débuts in the first episode of the first season. History Before First Curse The Darkness is the corrupted soul of Nimue, lover of the Sorcerer Merlin. Vortigan, attempting to kill Nimue, seemingly fatally stabs her, but it turns out Nimue had drunk from the Holy Grail and had gained magic and immortality like Merlin. She then proceeds to rip out Vortigan's heart, and after ignoring Merlin's pleads for her to not give in to the darkness, she crushes his heart, and the Flame of Prometheus becomes extinguished. Because she used the power of the Holy Grail for evil, Nimue's soul is corrupted and she becomes the first Dark One, smashing Excalibur so that Merlin cannot destroy the darkness or her magic inside her. ("Nimue") Nimue later created a vault for her own usage, and emerged as the Dark One to the public from this vault. She has turned her dark soul into a curse that allows her to live on beyond the death of her physical body, inhabiting the soul of whoever kills the current Dark One with the dagger, gifting that person with the Dark One's power. ("Quiet Minds") While the Darkness originated as Nimue's soul, it grows more powerful by assimilating the darkness of each soul that it passes on to as part of the Dark One curse. Because of this, the Darkness can manifest itself as every Dark One there ever was, even to the point of manifesting as all of them at the same time. ("Nimue") At some point, Merlin had created a special hat, capable of absorbing and accumulating magic. The hat is protected by the Apprentice from each person that takes on the Dark One's powers. Every Dark One tries to steal the hat, but none of them succeed. ("The Apprentice") Merlin takes the other half of Excalibur and enchants it to be able to control Nimue, this is the Dark One's Dagger. Eventully Nimue and Merlin meet again, and Merlin in a moment of utter grief becomes overpowered by Nimue, and becomes trapped into a tree. ("Dreamcatcher") One day, the latest Dark One, Zoso, arrives in an attempt to open the guarded Sorcerer's Hat, only to be blasted away by the artifact's magic. Once the Apprentice informs the Dark One why his mission will never succeed, a beaten Zoso teleports away. ("The Apprentice") Decades later, while Zoso is still the Dark One, the kingdom resorts to using children as soldiers in another Ogre Wars. Rumplestiltskin fears for the possibility of losing his child and flees away with him. But they are approached by a mysterious old man, who steers him towards stealing a magical dagger which can control the Dark One. Rumplestiltskin decides to steal the dagger from the Duke of the Frontlands, with the hopes of protecting Baelfire and turning the Dark One into a force for good. Once alone, Rumplestiltskin summons the Dark One and he stabs the entity with the dagger in a fit of blind rage. But he discovers the Dark One is the old man who told him about the dagger. Then Rumplestiltskin's own name replaces Zoso's on the dagger, and he gains the powers of the Dark One. ("Desperate Souls") After Second Curse Because of his centuries of committing bad deeds as the Dark One, Mr. Gold's heart is almost consumed by the Darkness. If he does nothing, Gold would die, and the Darkness would be free on its own, which could destroy the world. ("Mother") To stop this from happening, the Apprentice absorbs the Darkness out of his heart and into the hat. However, the Darkness breaks free and attacks him. Emma repels it with a blast of light magic and the Darkness flees into town, but before she can follow, the Apprentice tells her about the Sorcerer's past dealings with the Darkness and how the Dark One was born from it. On the streets, Emma and her parents join Regina and Robin Hood as they look for the Darkness, which has seemingly vanished. However, when the Darkness tries infiltrating Regina and removing the light from her, Emma uses the dagger to bind it to her soul and become the new Dark One. She then vanishes into thin air while the dagger drops to the ground, revealing her name is now on it. ("Operation Mongoose Part 2") During Camelot Quest After absorbing the Darkness, Emma disappears from Storybrooke, with her body reforming out of the Vault of the Dark One in the Enchanted Forest. Finding herself garbed in a cloak, she soon discovers that the Darkness, under a manifestation of Rumplestiltskin - one voice out of the many Dark Ones - is now her guide, and he intends to stay until she fully accepts her powers. ("The Dark Swan") Known Dark Ones Nimue † (Original Dark One) *Ten unknown Dark Ones1 * *Gorgon the Invincible * *Zoso † *Rumplestiltskin / Mr. Gold (Darkness removed) *Emma Swan